Ye Cup jaa chuka hai...

Today when I started Google Chrome, Facebook was ahead of blogger in terms of usage. That’s when I realized what a long time it had been since I came here!!! So now back to the news. The “defending champions” have failed to make it to the semi finals. The captain and the coach differ in the reasons for this. The entire nation is at rage. Former cricketers have their own theories. Commentators have their own theories. The nation has its own theories. It’s good that the team will leave for the Caribbean directly. Dhoni said before the tournament that the fans should not be upset if they lose. Maybe he was aware. Being given an easy group at the outset, India failed to raise their game to a level that was necessary and expected from a team that wants to win the Cup. The Aussies paved the way, India walked the path. We only lasted three more defeats than the Aussies. Now the question is, who will face the music this time? Who will be shown the exit door? Do we need to be underdogs every time we wish to win a World Cup? It happened in ’83 and it happened in ’07. Whenever the Indian team was slated to be favorites, it has failed to deliver the goods. Whenever the “famed batting line-up” has been called up to deliver, it has let the team and the nation down. India never had the best bowling line up and let’s not talk about the fielding of the team here. It has never been a forte and apart from appearing in sparks here and there, it has been unimpressive overall. Only one positive can be taken from India's unsuccesfull World Cup campaign. The team took care that India sleeps well and on time and does not have to stay awake watching the matches and worrying what the result will be and whether Team India will be able to defend their title(But ofcourse that's an eternal optimist thinking). Nothing more remains to be said. Team India has been found wanting on more occasions than can be warranted and unless we see a sea change in the way things are being done, the future appears bleak to say the least…

A salute to mothers

The “Middle Space” article titled “Mother of Pearl” by Mrs. Bodhankar in The Hitavada on 29^th May 2009 was indeed a fitting salute to the Mother. Indeed, bringing a new person to this world is the greatest gift that God has created and he gave this supreme gift to the Mother. Historically, mothers have always been worshipped not only in India but all over the world and as the saying goes, behind every successful man, there is a woman and in most cases, she is his mother. Take the example of Chhatrapati Shivaji and we remember that it was Jijamata who made him what he was. Even the all conquering Alexander the Great was trained by his mother. Even the Indian entertainment industry recognizes the value of the Mother. The line “Mere paas maa hai” from the movie “Deewar” has become immortal (A.R. Rahman took the line to the Oscars this year too) and also “Maa ka Doodh piya hai to saamne aa” and who can forget “Sehwag ki Maa”? Sanjay Leela Bhansali goes so far as to replace his father’s name with his mother’s. But perhaps the unsung heroines of today are the countless mothers in the world. She plays the pivotal role in the household and is responsible for almost everything that is done. Be it the cooking, the shopping, the children, their schools, their homework, their health, the list is almost endless. The day the Mother takes ill is the day Chaos rules the household. It is only when she returns to her position that everyone else heaves a sigh of relief and normalcy is restored. A mother’s brain is perhaps the most efficient supercomputer ever designed.

           Through the article, Mrs. Bodhankar touched a tender subject of the old age homes where a few sons and daughters have abandoned their parents. Indeed it is a tragedy that such institutions even exist and after elaborating the role of the mother, the writer’s take on these old age homes is truly touching. Have we become so engrossed to the use and throw culture that we treat everything and everyone the same way? Through this blog, I take this opportunity to salute my mother and the countless mothers that keep the world moving and as my particular generation would put it, “YOU ROCK!!!”

Nagpur: What does it have???

            My friend Harshavardhan once wrote a blog “What does Nagpur city lack?” That blog temporarily fuelled my pride for my home city and I planned this particular blog. But other events took centrestage and the fuel ran out. Now, at long last, the bug has returned and this long-pending blog has finally begun to take shape.

To develop anything we must first take a look at what we have. Do we have a clean slate or do we have something to form a base. Do we have to deal with anything and everything or do we have some things taken care of already? When I think of what can be done to make Nagpur a world class city, the first thought that comes to mind is: What do we have?

            The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “Nagpur” is the May heat. Maximum temperatures in summer rarely ever go below 45 degrees and mind you, the summer is pretty long (our coolers stay in service for about 4 months so that’s really something). So what we have in abundance is solar power. Not only in the form of heat but also light. With the suburbs of Nagpur still in the underdeveloped stages, there are plenty of huge open spaces all around the city and that way, Nagpur is perhaps the perfect location to set up atleast one, if not many, solar power plant. With fossil fuel situation worsening by the day and with attempts to optimize their usage and go for non-conventional sources, here’s one that is absolutely free, clean and available throughout the year. If properly managed, a solar power plant in Nagpur might be the biggest shot in the arm that the city needs in order to get noticed on the world map. If such a plant materializes, it would not only create a very realistic chance of uninterrupted power being available in and around the city, it could potentially act as a technology demonstrator for more such plants to be set up not only around the city but also at other similar locations of the country. Power is that one major weak link in the chain that has deterred major players in the industries to set up operations in Nagpur and such a plant, if set up, could change all that.

The other thing that we have is the advantage of undeveloped suburbs. If we go by Mumbai standards for example, similar distances travelled in Nagpur do not take us to similarly developed areas. Now this may seem to be a deterrent at the first glance but it provides us with a unique opportunity of implementing planned development of these areas and to optimize their development. A few major projects such as the Sahara City have been taken up but they tend to go for a much localized development. A large scale planned development of the city’s outskirts can effectively bring them within the city’s limits and can turn a disadvantage into a potential ally.

One unique advantage that we have over cities like, say perhaps Mumbai or Chennai is that of the climate. Located nearly 950 km away from the sea (Mumbai CST station is 957km away from Nagpur station), there’s no flood risk, no torrential rain risk, no Tsunami risk (seems far fetched to talk of but a single wave can wreck total havoc) and most of all, the weather changes are more or less predictable. Similarly, the absence of the proximity with the sea makes the Nagpur heat far more bearable than other cities and it can also be effectively countered by old fashioned coolers without going into the trouble to install ACs and this is a huge power advantage that the coastal metros lack since the extreme humidity levels in such cities effectively rules out the use of conventional wood-wool based coolers that are hugely popular and effective in Nagpur. Also, the winters are not as severe as in the northern cities meaning transportation is not affected by fog which is almost a daily factor in New Delhi in winter. Also, the absence of mountain ranges in the vicinity rules out the risk of flash floods which can be devastating. When we think of it, Nagpur has perhaps one of the best climatic conditions in the way that everything is almost totally balanced.

The upcoming MIHAN project promises to be a huge boost to the region in general and Nagpur in particular. The accompanying surge in companies promises to create an economic boom in the region and a fast growth rate for anyone who enters the stream. The surge in Air traffic because of the MIHAN project will not only create a surge in the number of jobs available, it will widen the choice of jobs available.

Nagpur is one of the fast growing education hubs too with a huge number of colleges opening each year. This effectively translates into an unthinkable number of fresh educated youth being pumped out each year and this army of trained youth needs channelizing. The general trend is to hunt for avenues outside Nagpur because of the lack of satisfactory jobs in the city. Industries, particularly the IT industry can take a huge advantage of this large pool because most of the youth would prefer to stay in Nagpur for a job given the right conditions to work and grow.

The turn of the millennium saw the transformation of Nagpur at the hands of a single visionary in the form of Dr. T Chandrashekhar. This goes on to show that development in Nagpur is not as hard as it seems. It just needs a handful of determined men in positions of power to make a sea of change. I present here a few questions now. Sit down and give them a calm thought. One man changed the face of the city almost overnight considering what was happening before his time. What would happen if all of us came forward to take up that baton? What would such a large-scale effort translate into? Why did the pace vanish when the man was transferred? Why did no one else come up to fill in the gap effectively? Why do we need others to come and work for us? Why can’t we do it ourselves? Let us be very frank and terse. Dr. Chandrashekhar had the guts to go for development come what may. Why does the existing administration lack this? If they lack it, why don’t we force them to carry out their duties? Administration is, at the end of the day, the servant of the public. Why do we try to adjust on each and every turn in life? Why don’t we ask the authorities to straighten the roads? Come out of the rut. Even a middle class person is entitled to the civic amenities that can be made available. We have the right to question the authorities. Democracy is just another form of dictatorship. We are the law. We have been given the authority. Perhaps it's time we started exercising it as well...

The Slumdog Factor

People; their trials and tribulations; their unique methods to deal with them and their ultimate triumph against all odds. This basic theme has been tapped by countless film makers and nearly all have done great. Slumdog Millionaire is another addition to this and what a glittering addition! Everyone who has seen the movie will agree that the Best Film Oscar was no big surprise. It is worth noting how many facets of Indian life were incorporated perfectly in one movie and that too in a British film. India, with its colossal diversity has such a myriad subjects to portray that one only needs to look around carefully and one gets enough material to last many lifetimes. A hugely popular TV show, an unbelievable sequence of events and an end product that does not have a single glitch anywhere. History repeats itself. Richard Attenborough gave us Gandhi. Danny Boyle gave us Slumdog Millionaire. Both films were fully based in India but strangely, no one in India made them earlier. They say the subjects have been exhausted and that’s why they are forced towards remakes. Whose remake is Slumdog? Why is it that we cannot make such positive cinema in India? The technology is there. The stories are there. The actors are there. The audience is there. What are the Indian film makers waiting for? Winning 8 Oscars out of the 10 for which it was nominated is not a joke. Winning them ahead of movies like Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, etc is not something that is done on a regular basis. What did Danny Boyle do that the Indians didn’t? Have we not heard the music of A. R. Rahman before? Have we not seen Mumbai slums in movies before? Have we not had debut actors in a movie before? Have we not had stellar performances before? Why is there a sudden dearth of all this coming together? Why is it that we need to add the so-called masala items in every movie? For example, what purpose was solved by Jiah Khan’s item number in Ghajini? For that matter, what purpose do the item numbers solve in any Hindi movie? Just for the sake of an eye-candy, the movie carries an item song. No relation to the theme, no value addition to the film. It is just a cover up for a bad job done in making of the movie. How many such bad jobs do we have to face? Why is it that the end of almost every Hindi movie can be predicted by watching the first 15 minutes at the maximum? When do we get stuff equivalent to, say, the Oceans series? Or the Terminator series if someone gets too ambitious? What is it that we lack? Why does cinema have to be loud? Why do we need a gargantuan amount spent on a worthless piece of crap? Why? Why? Why?

                Well I don’t have the answers to these questions but what I can guarantee is this: Go and watch Slumdog Millionaire if you have not watched it already. It’s not everyday that you get to watch such quality stuff. Not with Indian actors in it. If you have already seen it and tend to agree with this blog, maybe we can watch it once more!!! A good turn deserves another, they say.

That particular Call!!!

Yesterday (29th Jan 2009) afternoon, I got a very interesting call. It would not have been so interesting had it not been for the goof-up that the caller did. So I thought maybe its worth this blog!! The call was from ICICI bank. In the following conversation, TM is myself and BE is the Bank Executive. Brackets indicate what I thought.So here goes:

TM: Hello!

BE: Good Afternoon Sir

TM: Yes, good afternoon!

BE: Sir I am calling from ICICI bank.

TM: (Oh hell, one more crap call) Ok, what can I do for you?

BE: Sir, is this the home of Mr. Madhukar Munje?

TM: Yes certainly it is!

BE: Sir, may I talk to him?

TM: (Dude, you have screwed up big time) Well he is my grandfather and he expired four years ago.

BE: Oh I am sorry sir. This phone  number I guess is registered in his name?

TM: No it is not. It is registered in his son's name.

BE: Oh yes sir. Mr. Ananta Munje.

TM: Yes that's right.

BE: So sir am I speaking to Mr. Ananta Munje? 

TM: (Dude, I had told you that I am the GRANDSON of Mr. Madhukar Munje; not his SON!!!) No you are not. I am the son of Mr. Ananta Munje.

BE: Ok sir so when can he be contacted?

TM: (you should have kept the phone down fella!) What do you want to talk about?

BE: Sir I had some interesting loan schemes...

TM: But they were for my grandfather were they not? 

BE: No sir they were for Mr. Ananta Munje.

TM: (That's it buddy!! I am done with you.) Where did you get this number from? I don't think my father will be interested in the schemes you have. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

At this point, I disconnected the line just because my mobile phone started ringing!! I would have loved to take him to task for the next ten minutes (afterall, incoming is free guys!!!)

What can Obama Do?

A lot of hype has surrounded the new president of the USA. Being the first black to ever take up the US presidency and also taking over the baton from the not-so-famous Bush regime, Obama has a lot of reconciliation to do and a lot to prove. At the outset, he will be expected to make his stand clear on the global issue of Terrorism which has been taking gigantic leaps in the past days. With the Bush regime becoming a witness to the largest terror attack ever and also the first of this scale on a hitherto untouched country followed by the Afghanistan war and the controversial  Iraq war, Obama will have to make his stand clear right at the outset. So far, with a surge in the attacks on the Osama terror camps, things look good. But still it is too early in the game to predict the outcome. India will be looking out for a potential ally in its constant contest with the terrorists. It will be interesting to see whether the US government now sidelines itself from the proxy war that has been going on or does it declare a full-scale war on terrorism with a view to erase it from the face of the earth once and for all.

                Another issue that Obama will have to address immediately will be the global economic slowdown which has timed itself perfectly with the change of regime in the USA. It would be worth watching what corrective steps are taken by the new faces in the face of the meltdown because their efficiency will not be judged by whether they make the world recover from the meltdown but by how fast they can do so. The stock markets which have become the index of the current crisis have not yet recovered and it will take them some time to regain their past glory. It remains to be seen how far the Obama government can speed up this recovery.

                Yet another issue will be the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (the NPT and the CTBT) and also the much hyped nuclear deal. With the Lok Sabha elections now scheduled for April-May, the nuclear deal issue is bound to take centrestage in the campaigning. What stand is taken by the US government in this regard will be interesting to watch because it will decide whether they consider India as their greatest ally or their potential nemesis and Obama would be better off letting his actions speak for him.

                With the elections in India lurking around the corner, we, the people, now need to evaluate all these factors and form a clear, concise and accurate opinion on them because after five years, we will again be given a chance to form a mandate and our decision will be affecting the lives of everyone around us. The least we can do is to ensure that we exercise our right to vote. That’s all we can do and that is precisely what is expected of us.

Jumbo takes the final ride

It was a shocker that many were expecting. But the way in which it came was something that was not expected. Anil Kumble; The Jumbo of the Indian cricket team, the captain, the numero uno among Indian bowlers and one of the most committed players the world has ever seen retired from international cricket yesterday at perhaps his favorite hunting ground AKA Ferozshah Kotla. The real Man of the Indian team, Kumble epitomizes every quality one can dream of in a cricketer as well as a person and he has shown it time and again. Bowling with a fractured jaw, bowling with 11 stitches on your hand and taking a splendid running catch off your own bowling are just a few of the tips of the iceberg that signifies the performance of this great man. He stood tall for 18 years in the cricket team and has been notably absent from the controversies. The silent assassin went on with the tasks at hand for these many years and without any pomp and show, created a mountain of wickets that stands as the highest in India and the third highest in the world and to think that he reached his 50 wickets marks in just his 10th match goes to show the caliber that he possesses. Add to that a Test century and you wonder what you are staring at! Even in his last test, he scored a healthy 45 which is a pretty nice score for a person that holds the record for the most wickets by an Indian bowler. Being the only Indian to have taken 10 wickets in an innings, Anil Kumble stitched together a test squad that has grown by leaps and bounds under his short stint as captain. There are people who shout at the top of their voice amongst each other to make their opinions known and there are people who fight for their voices to be heard. But there are people who resort to no such forms. When they talk, everyone listens. Jumbo starts this list and mind you, only a very select number of individuals make it to this list. The Indian fans will miss this great man for ages to come and it will be indeed a mountain of a task to find a replacement for such a player. Regrettably, he will not be seen in action at Nagpur but we will be seeing another final show in the form of Sourav Ganguly who takes on the Aussies for one final battle at the brand new VCA stadium.

Fate

27^th June 2008. The date I was scheduled to join Tech Mahindra with 150 odd college mates of mine. 20^th June 2008. The date we got the mail that our joining had been postponed till further notice. It was the day all of us cursed Tech Mahindra till dawn and continued it for atleast a week or so uninterrupted. I had started thinking why? Why was the joining postponed? Didn’t Tech Mahindra know the number of people slated to join? Didn’t they anticipate the infrastructure they would need to cater to the number? From that day to this, so much has happened. It has been a thought provoking and a literal life changing experience for me. 

Ganeshotsav is the chief festival in my family and last year, we missed out on it due to the death of my grandfather’s elder brother just days before Ganesh Chaturthi. With my joining slated for June, I was certain of missing it out this time too and for a long time henceforth, I would be unable to enjoy Ganeshotsav at home for the full span of 10 days. But it was planned to work out differently and I was home savoring the one last chance for the full 10 days having nothing to do other than celebrate Ganeshotsav. 

During that time, Tech Mahindra scheduled the joining of 120 odd freshers for 10^th October 2008. The list featured 57 people from my college but my name didn’t feature in that list too. I again thought why? Why didn’t I get the date even now? A week after Ganeshotsav, my grandmother suffered an attack of Lumbar (lower back) Spondylosis and was bed ridden for 20 days writhing in pain and it was essential that I remain at home. That period too passed on. 

Then my dear friend Harshavardhan initiated a process to fill up the 10^th October batch to capacity as many people called to join on that date had not joined due to other commitments (other companies, M.S. , MBA, etc) and he called me on to join him in the process. At that time, I readily agreed but my father was against it and I put all the pessimism I could muster in a single mail and sent it to Harsha. That mail didn’t reek of pessimism. It WAS pessimism incarnated in electronic form and I regretted it from the point I thought of writing it but dad had spoken and if there’s one rule I follow, it is that I never go against a final decision taken by him even if it means that I have to hurt a very good friend of mine because owing to several such confrontations, I have never regretted the decision in the long term. So I backed out at a time when I would have been an asset to the project undertaken by Harsha and that too at a decisive point. Didn’t I believe in his plan? Didn’t I believe in the decision Harsha would take? I would stake my life on his decisions any day. I would blindly follow the path if he approved of it. There are a very few people that I have come to trust blindly. His plan was flawless. The concerns that I expressed in the mail that I had prepared never existed. I had to formulate them from my imagination. Harsha is one of them and I state it openly. I would do anything to get a joining date and his plan of action was perfect. I had considered it from all possible angles and had found that there were no gaps. Still I backed out. I didn’t know why I forced myself to do it. I just obeyed dad because he alone has the veto power in my decisions. That was on October 5. Harshavardhan Kunte’s efforts bore fruit and he has joined Tech Mahindra on 17^th October. I was never a part of the final plan and I didn’t get any such joining date. On 15^th October, my grandfather (mummy’s father) died in the morning. The news was a shocker because it was least expected. It was on the same date that I had got Harsha’s SMS saying that he had got the joining date for 17^th October. That news made my day in more ways than anyone can ever fathom. All through this long and agonizing wait for the joining date when I was ready to join on a notice of even ONE day, there was this one chance that I perhaps missed out on due to my own inaction. But as it turns out, I was needed here at home on that day and had I been in Pune, I would have had to come back and in any case, I would have missed having a last look at my grandfather. I would have missed unexpectedly talking to him for the last time on the last day of his life. 

I don’t know why but every time there is something unexpected, it turns out that it has been in my best interests though I don’t know it at that time. The Master Plan of my life is in action and is revealing itself to me, one page per day at a time and I have come to trust it till now...

Sach a great man!!

Sachin Tendulkar. A name that generates 13,60,000 search results in 0.06 seconds. A name that still sends shockwaves down the spines of bowlers. A name that calms a nation down. There are a very select few individuals who reach the level where the name itself is enough. Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps the primary example of this league. Having been around for 19 years, the sweet 16 year old boy that faced the wrath of the Pakistan pace battery has gone on to become a true legend. It is amazing how a player can retain his place in the team for so long and for the past two decades, Indians have known the fact that Cricket is synonymous with Sachin Tendulkar. This great man crossed yet another pinnacle and set up a new one when he crossed the 12000 run mark in Test cricket and in doing so, became the first person in the history of the game to do so. It seems a befitting tribute to the game itself that a player of Sachin’s caliber and status flags off the 12K barrier. For years together, the Indian innings in any game began and ended with Sachin and it was taken for granted that he was the sole member of the Indian team. That is perhaps the reason why no other cricketer has been able to generate the slogan that he has generated and to this date, everyone accepts the axiom that “Sachin is God” and that is the end of the discussion. For 19 years, the price of Sachin’s wicket has seen a continuous rise and to this date, his wicket is the sweetest reward that an opponent can get. For a man who made Shane Warne take off his T-Shirt and get it autographed, Sachin has had a remarkably notable career in the sense that he has never been involved in a single controversy and his smile has lightened up the arena countless number of times and still continues to do so. For a man who has survived two generations of youngsters including one that has now started to wither away with the announcement that this is Ganguly’s last series, Sachin’s caliber is truly awe inspiring. As is aptly said in the latest ad of the Royal Bank of Scotland, there are a few men who change the game itself and that list starts with Sachin Tendulkar.

Will Bollywood ever make original movies again?

I had been searching a lot for a very highly recommended movie of Rahul Bose by the name “Shaurya”. I had heard very rave reviews of the movie and was overjoyed when I caught it on TV yesterday. Needless to say I watched it completely but in about ten minutes or less, it struck me that it was almost a total copy of the Hollywood flick “A few good men” starring Tom Cruise and Demi Moore. Yes the story has been Indianised to help people relate to it but the overall plot, scenes, characters were all picked up directly from the Hollywood movie and the picking up was so complete that I could almost predict the next scenes with surprising accuracy!!

Being somewhat a movie buff, I watch English movies a lot and in between, whenever I find myself watching a Hindi movie, some or the other English movie strikes in mind as its original. So Hitch becomes Partner. Reservoir Dogs becomes Kaante. Murder by numbers becomes Samay. The whole nine yards combined with The Matrix series and the Mission Impossible series becomes Awaara Paagal Deewana. Three men and a baby becomes Heyy Baby. Bruce Almighty becomes God Tussi Great Ho (note that the beard of Amitabh Bachchan is exactly same as that of Morgan Freeman) the list is almost endless.

Is it the case that some kind of virus has infected Bollywood? Why is it that there is such a great dearth of ideas so suddenly and so completely among the entire fraternity that you have to make a choice if you want to watch the movie in English or Hindi (the difference boils down to whether you want to hear songs during the movie or not)? To a certain extent, it was understandable that some very old Bollywood films are reconstructed in the present scenario (Nadiya Ke Paar becomes Hum Aapke Hai Kaun) but taking complete Hollywood films and making your own film and marveling on your own creation is out of my scope of understanding as a rational and fair man. Is it the case that anyone and everyone who has watched a Hollywood movie and found it interesting will come up and make a Hindi movie out of the same concept and marvel at his own creation? If such is the case, then why don’t these people directly employ the Hollywood people to make these remakes for them? At least it will be done with more efficiency than what we see endure these days!